raddled

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹædl̩d/

Adjective

raddled (comparative more raddled, superlative most raddled)

1. Worn-out and broken-down.
   • 1890, Henry James, The Tragic Muse:

     In the end her divine voice would crack, screaming to foreign ears and antipodal barbarians, and her clever manner would lose all quality, simplified to a few unmistakable knock-down dodges. Then she would be at the fine climax of life and glory, still young and insatiate, but already coarse, hard and raddled, with nothing left to do and nothing left to do it with, the remaining years all before her and the raison d'etre all behind. It would be curious and magnificent and grotesque.

   • 2003 November 21, Peter Bradshaw, “Love Actually”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     And overseeing them all, like a raddled old good-ish fairy, is Bill Nighy, playing a superannuated rocker hoping to get a Christmas number one with his cynically repackaged version of Love Is All Around.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:weak or Thesaurus:deteriorated